Leading Economic Indicators

Farming continues to be a noble but grueling existence for rural residents of China, who work for only about $1,300 a year, but in one village (Jianshe, in southwest Sichuan province), farmers have established a co-operative capitalist model. In January, officials delivered farmers their annual dividend in cold cash —about $2.1 million to split among 438 households. Authorities unloaded banknotes in stacks that constituted a 7-foot-high wall of money, requiring villagers to pull 24-hour shifts to guard it.